


May 1st.

by anclrewjosten (caslyc)



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Spoilers, in which we 'predict' what happens on may 1st, post episode 83, thanks to the king falls am discord server
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-11 04:11:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18422547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caslyc/pseuds/anclrewjosten
Summary: "Are we still connected?" Sammy asked. "Ben? Are we still connected? Do we still have him?""Yes, the light's still on. We should be-""Sammy!" Jack's voice came through again, but this time his words were shorted, more frantic. Sammy hadn't been near Jack in over four years, but he still knew his fiancé. Jack was scared, and Jack Wright was not a man scared easily.





	May 1st.

**Author's Note:**

> Full credit for the ideas in this go to the King Falls AM Discord Server - throwing these ideas around just had me begging to see it on paper, and if I'm honest there was just so much I wanted to include. Here's to May the first and hoping it won't be as bad as we fear!

"And just remember folks, whilst Main Street Park is free of racist squandering racoons, don't forget to keep an eye out for anything suspicious and report it into the King Falls Sheriff Department. Stay safe!"

"Thanks Troy," Sammy Stevens concluded the segment, watching the town's sheriff push himself up from his seat. "You're not staying then? Busy night?"

Troy's southern drawl replied loud and clear across the radio waves. "Not today, Ben. Today was official _po_ -lice business, and I can't let those pestering Williams boys get one past me tonight because I was up here lollygagging."

"Alright, well you've heard it here King Falls!" Turning his head away from the microphones, Ben turned to Sammy. "Do you want to let take some calls whilst I let Troy out, or-"

"It's fine Ben, I'll do it. I'd rather miss the compulsory racoon-related calls anyway."

"And you think I want to hear-" Ben responded, falling short when Sammy pulled the studio door shut behind him.

"Won't be a moment!"

"Alright then, I guess we're getting this show on the road. Line four, you're up."

The briefest of moments passed with no response. Ben was about to repeat his greeting when a new voice spoke up - one Ben hadn't heard in King Falls before. He was sure about that. "Hello?"

"Hello! You're live on King Falls AM!"

"This is King Falls, then?"

"Yes, you're live, sir. Who are we speaking with?"

"Hi, uh, I'm from Cali. I was just hoping to ask a few-"

Ben spoke up, stopping the speaker from finishing his sentence. "California?" His brows pushed close with confusion.

"Yes, I was-"

"I don't know how- How did you get this number?" Ben said. 660's radio tower only just managed to reach the edges of King Falls, let alone the rest of the state. _Let alone California._

"Oh, I've been doing some research, throwing in a few emails and I've got this number. My name is Jack-"

"Jack?" Ben cut him off again. He wasn't being rude. At least, he had no intention to be rude, but Ben only knew one Jack. It was such a slim probability; there were lots of Jack's in California. 

"Jack Wright. I'm a radio producer too, you see-"

But this was King Falls.

"Jack... Jack! Oh man, this is unbelievable!" Within an instant, Ben's mind was racing with all the possibilities. He thought back to everything he knew about the void, about Jack's disappearance, but he knew, before he could ask anything, he had to get his partner back in the room. Anything could have happened to Jack, and he wanted to know, so badly. Ben was overwhelmed, but there was one person who would be more excited than him.

"Yes, I'm-"

"Sammy!" Ben's long shout cut Jack off again, louder than Jack would've thought possible. "Sammy, you've got to get in here! Right now!" There were so many explanations available, so many theories he had predicted, but none of them made sense to Ben. Why California? Why was Jack back there? Within every theory he had ever considered, Jack always returned from Perdition Wood. "Why are you calling in?" Ben asked. "Are you near? Can we-?"

"Uh... I'm in California, I told you. I was actually planning on visiting King Falls though, as a part of my research."

"You haven't been here before?"

"No, it'll be my first visit," Jack said. "I was hoping we could meet."

Ben's heart was racing now - he was so confused, and there was so much mystery, but none of that mattered, because right now, above it all, Jack was here. Jack was on the phone, talking to them. He was okay, which meant Sammy will be okay too. "Sammy!" Ben yelled again, physically standing from his seat as he yelled through the open window to the foggy parking lot. "Sorry, he'll just be so happy. You were saying?"

"He'll be... Sorry, Sammy who?" Jack asked, the smallest stutter present as he tried to wrap his mind around the excitable, young man's response to his name. Had they somehow been listening to Shotgun Saturday Nights, he wondered, although that idea was almost as delirious to Jack as a Californian fanbase for King Falls AM had been previously to Ben.

The door opened, and a voice came through the speaker that startled Jack into dropping his phone atop his lap.

"Yes, yes, what couldn't wait for me to shut the front door, Ben?"

Ben, spinning in his seat to watch Sammy take a seat, grinned enthusiastically.

"...Sammy?" Sammy dropped dead in his tracks, his hand resting on the back of his seat, and one leg raised just off the floor. He took one look at the speaker sat between him and Ben, one look at Ben, then one longer look at the speaker again. The soft voice repeated Sammy's name, this time unsure and doubtful.

"Jack," Sammy breathed.

"Wait, what the _fuck_? Sammy, you were inside, just a moment ago. I left you!"

"Inside? No, Jack, I'm not- Where are you?"

"He's in California, Sammy." Ben said it quietly, giving the information only to Sammy.

"You were falling asleep just five minutes ago. I left you, and now you're ringing _this_ radio show, of all shows-"

"You said you wouldn't-" Sammy cut himself off. _You said you wouldn't leave_ , he thought, repeating all he wanted to say to Jack in his mind, but Jack was on the other side of the line, and this was King Falls. This wouldn't last for long. Now was not the time to be Shotgun. "Jack. Where are you?"

"I'm outside, in the car. You said you didn't want to- you wouldn't go, but I have to. I'm sorry, Sammy," Jack explained. Whether he had truly returned to California, or was leaving it again, Jack Wright did not know where he had been. "I'll only be gone a weekend. You can cover the show for that long, right?"

"Jack," Sammy said, realisation dawning on him. Ben was looking expectantly at him as he spoke, waiting for him to explain, to react with the joy he had expected, but Jack was talking about their argument as if it had happened just earlier that evening. Sammy remembered Jack asking him, begging him to come to this town he'd never heard of - it still felt like the other day, but he had spent too long replaying that night over, and over, in his mind, to know that was not the truth.

"I'm not- It's not just a town-"

"You've been gone, Jack."

"I have to go to King Falls, Sammy," Jack said. A moment passed by again, slightly longer this time. "Sammy?"

"Sammy," Ben said softly, reaching over for him. Sammy was hunched over the control desk now, elbows resting on his knees, his eyes staring at the speaker, lost with no explanation. This was pure disbelief- He thought Jack would leave the void, return straight to King Falls. He thought he would get Jack back, and he would know what happened. Instead, he was sat, thousands of miles from his fiancé, reliving the worst night of his life.

"Look, I'm sorry. I'll be back-"

"No, you won't, Jack," Sammy snapped. "Are you going for the first time, or have you just gotten back the void? Why aren't you here- And in what fucking car? Your car is here, parked in the garages. It's been locked away for years."

"His car is here?" Ben asked.

"How else do you think I got to King Falls, Ben? You saw it the first night only, when Troy escorted me to the station, but ever since then it's been locked away. I got a new car. I couldn't- That car was all I had left of Jack. It was all I got back because it wasn't deemed evidence anymore. Everything else was burnt."

"Then where is Jack now?"

Sammy shrugged his shoulders, waiting for a response from Jack, waiting for any explanation, but no sound came from the other end of the line. There was no static, no empty noise, no dial tone indicating he had lost the connection. Just one long, deafening silence. "Are we still connected?" Sammy asked. "Ben? Are we still connected? Do we still have him?"

"Yes, the light's still on. We should be-"

"Sammy!" Jack's voice came through again, but this time his words were shorted, more frantic. Sammy hadn't been near Jack in over four years, but he still knew his fiancé. Jack was scared, and Jack Wright was not a man scared easily. "Sammy!"

"Jack! Are you okay?" Sammy stood up, leaning over the desk, as close to the microphone as possible.

"Shit, Sammy, it's dark. It's the middle of the night, but it's so dark." Sammy could hear Jack's shaky breaths, more frequent now and louder than possible on speaker phone. "It's gone really dark. I can't see anything? The wheel, it was right in front of me and I can't find it- There's nothing there- I-"

"Jack, stay with me. Don't you dare go anywhere." Sammy was panicking now, his own voice becoming lower, more controlled as his own fear increased. He couldn't lose Jack again now. He had feared Jack wasn't back: time was not linear in King Falls, but he could not allow for this to happen. He would not. Not again.

"You've got to come outside, please," Jack begged. His breathing was heavy and ragged. "Are you there, Sammy?" There was no break between his words, but amidst his panic, he did not want to be left alone, not for a moment, without the comfort of Sammy's voice grounding him. He was constantly moving, watching, searching, reading, feeling, experiencing. Having all that taken away from him, not even being able to feel the seat beneath him, was his worst nightmare imaginable.

"I'm here, Jack. Just, step out your car, go back in-" Sammy cut off, already realising- already fearing what was inevitably going to happen.

In the lull, Ben called out Jack's name. His mind was racing over everything he had learnt, researched, and theorised in his notebook, but as he sat in his chair, he found he was unable to physically do anything to help.

Ben got no reply. "Hey Jack? Are you there?"

Sammy's head shot up, his eyes darting back and forth, full of alarm. "Jack?"

 _Nothing_.

"Jack!" Sammy shouted, his chest quickly filling with the familiar dread he had grown to live with, filling and overflowing quicker and quicker as more time passed without a reply. "God... damn it!" He shot up, instinctively turning-

"Sammy, Sammy, no!" Ben ran around the table, reaching up to grab Sammy's shoulders. Then, barely a whisper, he said, "We can't afford another control desk."

Sammy heaved a shaking sigh. This was so much worse then before. Atop all the pain, the grievances he had carried for the last half a decade, hearing Jack and losing him again was all too much. He had had hope, for the first time in a long time (for the first time ever). But now? Jack was in the void. Again. "Jack, goddamnit, I-"

"Don't look for me, Sammy Stevens." For the second time that night, Sammy stopped dead in his tracks at the familiar sound of Jack's voice. He knew every small nuance of his fiancé voice, every inflection he had memorised, but this was not right. He looked at Ben, and judging from the wide eyes staring back at him, Ben knew it too. That wasn't his boyfriend speaking anymore.

" _Y-You_ -"

"Don't come looking for Jack Wright."

"How... Fucking... _Dare_ you?" Sammy seethed, breathing in deep, slow. He was contained, but inside? His heart was racing. His mouth was ry, and he only had one thought on his mind. "Jack Wright is my boyfriend. My partner. My _fiancé_. You wouldn't take me, I have learnt to deal with that- I _had_ to, but you give Jack Wright back to me."

"Sammy," Ben said softly, not sure how to react.

" _Now_."

"Jack Wright is with us. Leave us alone."

"Don't you dare. Don't you _fucking_ dare. You bring him back, you give him back!" Sammy was yelling now, shouting with every breath of air he had left in his lungs. His entire body was tense; his hands were curled in tight fists, held ready at his waist; his lips had curled, ready to fight, ready to do what he had to do.

"You will not find him, Sammy Stevens."

"You want to fucking bet? I'll be there. I swear. I'll come right to you guys, and I'll see Jack, I'll get him back, and I'll kick your fucking ass right back into the void. I'll shut up guys up, for good, I swear to fucking-"

"Goodbye."

The line went dead before Sammy could respond. Ben looked at him, his mouth still open, his eyes staring into nothing. He had only seen Sammy upset - this visibly upset - once before, and that was the worst state he could imagine his best friend in, but _this-_ This was nothing compared to that. This was new: this was anger, this was rage; this was loss at its finest. Ben, in spite of talking for six hours a night with no troubles, did not know what to say now. He couldn't tell Sammy it would be okay this time, because he didn't know that would be true. Ben Arnold, the everlasting optimist, was unsure.

"Sammy," he said again. Unsure. Softer, quieter,  and barely audible.

"Get your fucking notebook, Ben. We're finding Jack."

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: If anyone is interested I own a podcast server, for discussion on any podcast you're listening to! It's new and currently growing, so if you're interested, feel free to join here: https://discord.gg/Bpe5b5h


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